Here’s what Cup drivers had to say after Sunday’s Cup race at the Circuit of the Americas:
Ross Chastain – Winner: “To go up against some of the best with AJ (Allmendinger) – I mean, I know he’s going to be mad at me; but we both raced hard and he owes me one. But when it comes to winning the cup, man, I can’t just let it go without a fight. … (Crew Chief) Phil Surgen, man. he is so good People don’t know how good this group is. I can’t believe Justin Marks hired me to drive this car. … I don’t know how we got back. I was so worried about AJ on the penultimate restart that I let Tyler (Reddick) drive right past the both of us. And AJ is so good. I learned so much from him. And it was like, how do you hit that guy? He taught me so much. I learned so much from so many people at 417 Speedway at my dad’s house. I thought about those late restarts, my dad used to let me race on old tires and at the time I didn’t want to win. It was in my head before I even started. Then it occurred to me: We’re not going to win, we’re running on old tyres, but I couldn’t think like that. I thought neutral. Chevrolet, whatever they do for me, gave me the tools to try to do the execution and we did it.
Alex Bowman – finished second: “I was trying to do a better job as a racer on these street courses and I felt like I made it from where we started the weekend. So proud of Greg (Ives) and all the boys. It’s a shame we can’t win but we’re happy that Ross got his first win. It’s been a crappy weekend so I’m ready to come home and see the dogs and move on to next weekend. I’m happy about second place.”
Christopher Bell – finished third: “It was a hard fought day, that’s for sure. Losing the power steering wasn’t ideal. I noticed a problem early in the race and knew something was wrong and ended up losing the power steering a few laps later. It wasn’t good, but this group of 20 did a great job getting us out of there. The DeWalt Camry was really strong on restarts. I was always able to make up a few places and that’s how we finally made it to the finish line.”
Chase Elliott – finished fourth: “Yeah, I didn’t really have to do anything. They just broke and were out of the way so I just rode on the road and got a few free positions so I’ll take it. … I screwed up earlier in the race (in contact with Kyle Busch). I got crossed in the braking zone and hit him. Obviously we were racing for last place and probably not even stage points and I think he knows me better than that. But yeah, that was all up to me.”
Tyler Reddick – finished fifth: “Just couldn’t get a good start into Turn 1. And the 1 car I almost cleared, but not quite. We’ve been really on the loose side all day and that makes us pretty prone to getting aggressive at the end. So it was easy to get around there and that was kind of a problem I had all day. I just had a little bit of pressure from anyone and the rear of this car was off the track. It got through the Esses pretty well and was able to do a lot of things really well but we just missed it a little where it was really difficult to get that good start right when we were struggling with other cars in traffic corner and complete a pass or fight really hard. So it’s been tough, but we’re going to learn from it and go back to the simulator and get back to work.”
Ryan Blaney – finished sixth: “It was definitely a hot day. We were done with the first stage and it was hot. We were close to winning the first stage but I just couldn’t get close to (Daniel) Suarez. We finished fourth in that second phase and that kind of got us back behind the eight and made our way through the field. We stayed out with old tires and were able to hold the track position pretty well there at the beginning of the third stage. Then we lost a few places in the pit lane while waiting for fuel. We drove back up there and somehow survived. I thought our car was pretty decent. It’s so hard surviving reboots and trying not to get flipped. Overall it wasn’t a bad day. We got some stage points, that’s good.”
Martin Truex Jr – 7th Place: “It was just a fight. We could never get the car where we needed it. After the workout I was definitely worried – I wasn’t feeling that good. Your hands are so tied to these things with these short exercises. We just fought and kept fighting all day and got a decent result but no stage points so just a mediocre day for this Bass Pro Shops Toyota team.
Austin Cindric – finished eighth: “It’s pretty easy on paper, isn’t it? Qualifying 10th, first stage 10. Second stage ninth, late eighth. just right? It definitely isn’t. Many adversities to overcome. I put some of this on me and some of it is just awkward I guess. They are difficult cars to drive and difficult to try to over-brake someone. There were many people who slowed themselves out. Either way, a really strong showing from the Discount Tire Ford Mustang. We had the pace today to finish in the top three and lead laps. I’m just happy that we got stage points and a top 10. That’s what I wanted to take with me today and that’s what we got.”
Austin Dillon – finished 10th: “We finished top 10 and ended up being really good in those restarts. Came from far away. You know, we had a little boxing issue that sent us back, but we could just keep going and get all the way up to finish where we needed it. Luckily these races are very long, so don’t let an early penalty get you down. Just stay focused and we’ve been able to make progress and make the car better. To come back after two bad races that kind of got out of our hands, we held this one in our hands all day and it ended up being wild there. It feels great to be in the top 10. Probably not our best track to be looking forward to and it’s getting better and better for us. We’re really proud of our boys and the effort we put into our Bennett Chevrolet.”
William Byron – finished 12th: “Tough day. Definitely put us behind with the speeding penalty. We were going to bike out there between AJ (Allmendinger) and (Tyler)n Reddick and screwed it up on my part. I thought our car was decent all day. It There’s definitely some things we need to work on, but it’s good to come home 12th, get a solid finish and we’ll be good at Richmond and Martinsville. Something to look forward to.”
Cole Custer – finished 23rd: “We had speed, that was good. I wish we had ended up better with One Cure on the car and all the donations and everything. It’s just frustrating, all in the second half of the race. We were filmed and should have ended much better.”
Chase Briscoe – finished 30th: “We were able to keep improving the car as the race progressed and in the end it felt like we had a chance. The 1 (Ross Chastain) kind of edged me out and I tried to get back at him, made a mistake and let the 16 (AJ Allmendinger) past. Then I blocked the left front on a reboot and from there on every reboot after we just tried to hold on and we blasted the right front on the last reboot. We had another really fast Mustang, which is encouraging. We had the speed and were able to keep up with the front again. We just have to put everything together. That was the story all year long. If we can pull it all together, we’re really tough. We did that in Phoenix and we just have to keep doing that.”
Joey Logano – finished 31st: “It was kind of a day of up, down, down and more down. We got stage points, which thank God we got some of. We were dumped by the 17 (Chris Buescher). Then we started to recover and had a loose wheel and started to recover again and got back to 10th and then got dumped again. Then the toe broke and everything else was bad. I hobbled around and finished, I don’t even know where I finished, but it was just one of those days.”
AJ Allmendinger – finished 33rd: “At the end of the day, we all have to look at ourselves in the mirror. If you agree to this, you agree to this. Every person is different. Especially proud of Kaulig Racing. Action Industry Chevy was so fast. If we had a long run, no one would touch us. So pit stops are great. Everyone at Kaulig Racing, all men and women, it’s a lot of sleepless nights for them right now trying to just take these cars to the next race. So I did whatever I could to try and sweep the weekend for her. We were so close. So, like I said, at the end of the day everyone has to take whatever step they’re comfortable with, and that’s okay. So we will know – at the end of the day – that we had a chance to win the race. It’s hard to win a cup race. So if you put yourself in a position to be up front all day and have a chance to win it, that’s a pretty awesome day. Unfortunately, we only needed about two corners more.”
Joey Hand – finished 35th: “We tried a bit to find our feet and make sure the car didn’t have any problems with this tire, so I was a bit hesitant and just worked on that in the first phase. We had trouble going down, but we were really good at braking. I was able to catch up with guys, but I just didn’t get into the mix. Boys brought good changes. We kept changing the air pressure and wedge and got it to work pretty well. Before those last few warnings, we had gone through the boys quickly. We moved through half the field. Then I just got pogo’d. I broke early. They come in and hit us pretty hard at 11 and then the last one was just chaos as the guys went down inside. I was on the inside and the guys pulled four down and it was just everyone hitting everyone. I ended up getting a piece of 11 (Denny Hamlin), I know that. I guess me and the 5 (Kyle Larson) got a piece of the 11 but it was just soft in it. That corner, Turn 1, only gets four wide and you’re pushed in there. It’s stuck and you’re locked in. We took a couple of hard hits up front and the last one was enough to bend the front right a bit. We thought it was a flat tire, but we actually bent something. It was a good day at times, but it was really a bad day in the end.”